Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast, number 838, talking about immigration.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 838.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
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This episode is is a dialogue between Anne and Chris about a popular issue in the United States immigration.
Let's get started.
The immigration policy in this country is ridiculous.
Why are there so many illegal immigrants here?
They cross the border and take American jobs.
They all need to be deported.
A lot of immigrants have lived here nearly all their lives.
Do you mean to tell me that you want to do some of the jobs that undocumented workers do, like picking crops and cleaning houses, and not earning minimum wage?
There's nothing wrong with that kind of work.
I wouldn't want to do it myself.
That's just it.
You're willing to benefit from cheap labor, but you keep complaining about immigrants.
There needs to be an amnesty or work permit program so that they can stay legally and work and pay their taxes.
These illegal immigrants dodge paying taxes too.
But they don't get the same social services that citizens or legal immigrants do.
You can't have it both ways.
If you want them to do what citizens are required to do, then you have to give them legal status.
And by the way, when is your visitor's visa up?
It was up last month, but I'm from Canada.
Overstaying a visa is not the same thing as being an illegal alien.
That's where you're wrong.
Where's that number for immigration?
Our dialogue begins with Anne saying to Chris I-M-M-I-G-R-A-T-I-O-N is when people come into a country.
They leave their own country and they go to a different country and typically become citizens of that country, become members of that country or that nation, if you will.
Anne says the immigration policy, the laws, the rules, the guidelines for immigration in this country is ridiculous, meaning it's terrible.
Ridiculous usually has a negative meaning, especially in an example like this.
Anne says, why are there so many illegal immigrants here?
Illegal, I-L-L-E-G-A-L, is something that is against the law.
Immigrant is the person who immigrates.
So if you leave from one country to another, you are an immigrant to your new country.
The United States, of course, is for the most part a country of immigrants.
Anne says that these illegal immigrants cross the border and take American jobs.
A border b-o-r-d-e-r is the line that divides, in this case, two countries.
To cross means to go from one side to the other, so to cross the border means to go from one country to another.
Anne is talking about these illegal immigrants who are coming from another country and into the United States.
They're crossing the border.
They all need to be deported, Anne says.
To deport.
D-E-P-O-R-T is when the government of a country makes you leave that country.
They kick you out of the country.
They require that you leave.
Chris responds that a lot of immigrants have lived here nearly all their lives, meaning many immigrants have been here since they were children.
Do you mean to tell me that you want to do some of the jobs that undocumented workers do?
The phrase do you mean to tell me is used when you can't really believe what the other person is telling you.
Do you mean to tell me that you have never visited New York City?
Well, a lot of people have not visited New York City, but if you didn't believe what the person was telling you, if you were surprised and perhaps even a little angry, you might use this phrase.
Do you mean to tell me that you want to do some of the jobs that undocumented workers do?
What Chris is saying is that the jobs that are being taken by illegal immigrants are jobs that most people probably don't want to do themselves.
Most Americans
The term undocumented worker refers to basically an illegal immigrant, but it's a little nicer term.
Undocumented means you don't have legal documents and a worker, of course, is someone who works.
Chris mentions a couple of these jobs, such as picking crops, C-R-O-P-S.
Crops refers to food that is grown, food that you eat, plants.
To pick means to go out and take the food from the plant so that you can eat it, such as corn, for example.
Cleaning houses means, of course, making sure that a house is clean by cleaning the floors and the windows and so forth.
This is a job that... many undocumented workers do.
They work as what we would call maids, M-A-I-D-S, a person who you pay to clean your house.
Chris says these undocumented workers often don't earn or don't receive the minimum wage in the United States.
The minimum wage, W-A-G-E, is the minimum amount of money you can pay a worker each hour.
I'm not sure exactly what it is in 2012.
It can also be different in different states.
Some states have a higher minimum wage than the national or federal minimum wage.
I believe in the year we are recording this, 2012, it's a little more than $7 an hour.
Ann says, there's nothing wrong with that kind of work.
I wouldn't want to do it myself, meaning I don't want to do that kind of work.
Chris says that's just it.
That's just it.
Here means that's my point.
That's what I'm trying to say.
You're saying what I'm saying.
You're willing to benefit from cheap labor, but you keep complaining about immigrants.
Labor, L-A-B-O-R, here means the work that is performed by people, not machines or computers.
The word labor can also be used to describe what happens when a woman is about to give birth to a child, when a child is about to be born.
We say that the mother goes into labor.
That, as many of you probably know from personal experience, is a lot of work indeed.
Chris says There needs to be an amnesty or work permit program so that they, the undocumented workers, can stay legally and work.
Amnesty A-M-N-E-S-T-Y is when the government decides they're not going to punish you for doing something illegal.
Usually amnesty is given for a short period of time and typically for things that are not that serious.
For example, the public library system might have a week where you can return a book even if it is overdue, even though you were supposed to return it a long time ago and have to pay money because it's late.
If the library gives you amnesty, it's saying we're not going to punish you.
You don't have to pay anything if you return the book.
Well, here, Chris is talking about amnesty for illegal immigrants, for undocumented workers.
The government would not punish them if they wanted to stay in the country.
A work permit.
P-E-R-M-I-T is an official document, an official letter or card that allows you to work in a country.
It's the permission that the government gives you to work in that country.
In the United States, you have to have a work permit or some sort of permission from the government to work here if you're not a official resident or citizen of the US.
Ann says, and pay their taxes.
She's saying that these illegal immigrants need to pay their taxes.
She says they dodge paying taxes too.
To dodge, D-O-D-G-E. means to avoid, to find a way not to do something.
Some people try to dodge their taxes.
They invent or create ways that will help them avoid having to pay the government money.
That's what Ann says these workers are doing.
Chris says, but they don't get the same social services that citizens or legal immigrants do.
Social services refers to benefits programs provided by the government to help people who are poor, to give them health care, to help people who perhaps have a drug problem.
All of these could be called social services helping people who need help, especially economic help, financial help, help with money.
Citizens C-I-T-I-Z-E-N-S are people who are members of or part of a particular country, who have the rights and responsibilities of being in that country.
I am a citizen of the United States.
If you are born in the United States, you also become a citizen of the United States, even when your parents are from a different country.
Chris says, you can't have it both ways, meaning you can't say one thing and then something that is opposite, and believe that both of those things should happen or are true?
He says if you want them, the undocumented workers, to do what citizens are required to do, then you have to give them legal status.
You have to say, oh, it's okay, you can stay here, you can stay in this country.
And by the way, in addition, when is your visitor's visa up?
A visa V-I-S-A is a document that allows you to visit a certain place once, usually for a short amount of time, although sometimes the visa can be for a longer period of time.
If you come to the United States as a student and you're studying at a US university, you would get a student visa.
You could stay here perhaps for maybe six, even eight years, depending on how much education you get.
Chris is asking Anne about her visitor's visa, which means she's not even an American citizen.
She herself is from some other country.
Anne says, it was up last month.
It was up means that it expired.
It was no longer valid.
But I'm from Canada, she says. overstaying a visa is not the same thing as being an illegal alien.
To overstay O-V-E-R-S-T-A-Y.
One word means to stay somewhere for more time than you are supposed to or for more time than you are expected to be there.
We have an expression he's overstaying his welcome, meaning he's staying too long at someone's house or in someone's apartment.
Now this person who owns the apartment or house is starting to get a little upset.
They've been staying there too long.
To overstay a visa would mean to get a visa to visit a country and then stay there longer than the visa allows you to.
Anne says that's not the same thing as being an illegal alien, an illegal immigrant.
The word alien, A-L-I-E-N, here means a person who is not from this country.
We also use that word alien to describe beings from outer space, creatures or life forms from other planets, if they exist.
Chris says that's where you're wrong.
He's saying Anne is wrong.
Overstaying a visa is, in fact, becoming an illegal immigrant.
Where's that number for immigration?
Where's that number for the Office of Immigration or the agency in the United States government that takes care of people who are immigrants?
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
The immigration policy in this country is ridiculous.
Why are there so many illegal immigrants here?
They cross the border and take American jobs.
They all need to be deported.
A lot of immigrants have lived here nearly all their lives.
Do you mean to tell me that you want to do some of the jobs that undocumented workers do, like picking crops and cleaning houses, and not earning minimum wage?
There's nothing wrong with that kind of work.
I wouldn't want to do it myself.
That's just it.
You're willing to benefit from cheap labor, but you keep complaining about immigrants.
There needs to be an amnesty or work permit program so that they can stay legally and work.
And pay their taxes.
These illegal immigrants dodge paying taxes, too.
But they don't get the same social services that citizens or legal immigrants do.
You can't have it both ways.
If you want them to do what citizens are required to do, then you have to give them legal status.
And, by the way, when is your visitor's visa up?
It was up last month, but I'm from Canada.
Overstaying a visa is not the same thing as being an illegal alien.
That's where you're wrong.
Where's that number for immigration?
Our scriptwriter labors long and hard... to provide us with the very best scripts on the Internet.
Thank you, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
